The data sourced in the article below is derived from Lipper’s Global Fund Flows application which may differ slightly from the Lipper U.S. Fund Flow data due to timing and methodology. This new application can be found on LSEG Workspace. During LSEG Lipper’s fund-flows week that ended October 4, 2023, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the first week in three, adding a net $32.9 billion. Taxable bond funds (-$6.5 billion, -0.49%, setting a new outflow record for this year), equity funds (-$1.9 billion, -1.03%), tax-exempt bond funds (-$1.3 billion, -0.79%),

Lipper Natural Resources Funds suffered $1.3 billion in outflows over the past week, marking their third-largest weekly outflow on record. This past week, funds within the classification averaged a loss of 10.64%. Lipper Natural Resources Funds have realized two of their 10-top lowest all-time weekly performances in the back-to-back weeks. The only other two weeks that posted larger outflows were fund-flows weeks ended October 1, 2014 (-$2.5 billion), and January 16, 2019 (-$1.4 billion). Both these weeks were followed by significant drops in gas and oil prices. Today, we are seeing massive spikes in all energy prices, which helps the

The Department of Labor reported today that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased at a 12-month rate of 8.6%—marking the largest annual increase since December 1981. Core-CPI, which excludes food and energy, also rose more than economist predictions, hitting 6% year-over-year. Food increased 10.1% from last year, while fuel oil prices spiked 106%. The World Bank downgraded its 2022 global growth estimate to 2.9%—the bank originally forecasted a 4.1% increase back in January. World Bank President David Malpass said, “For many countries, a recession will be hard to avoid…Markets look forward, so it is urgent to encourage production and avoid

The Federal Reserve increased interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point during their March meeting and originally planned to follow a gradual increase throughout the rest of the year. That plan is looking less and less likely. This Thursday, Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said, “It is appropriate in my view to be moving a little more quickly” to raise rates to curb inflation. Powell noted a half-percentage point (50 basis points [bps]) increase will be considered at the Fed’s May meeting. Others like St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who has been very vocal with his hawkish

The Lipper High Yield Funds classification, by definition, consists of funds that aim at high current yield from domestic fixed income securities. The classification has no maturity restriction and primarily consists of funds that hold greater than 50% of below investment grade debt. With about 527 funds and $292.2 billion in assets at the end of the first quarter, Lipper High Yield Funds is the second-largest classification of all General Domestic Taxable Fixed Income classifications. Performance-wise, Lipper High Yield Funds have realized strong gains on a trailing five-(+3.66%) and three-(+2.64%) year basis. Fixed income funds across the board have taken

The first quarter of 2022 marked a huge step forward for the U.S. in its progress toward enhancing and standardizing climate-related disclosures. Investors and stakeholders alike have been very loud in their demand for more consistent, comparable, and reliable climate-related information regarding how a company is operating now and how it plans to operate in the future. “Total return” may have a different connotation as we move toward a world where investors expect their investments to not only return profits but provide a meaningful impact while limiting the damage to the world in which they operate. In the U.S., the

On Thursday, March 17, U.S. broad-based equity markets ended the day in the black for the third straight session—Nasdaq (+1.33%), S&P 500 (+1.23%), and DJIA (+1.23%). Equity market participants continue to be hopeful that Russia-Ukraine peace talks will continue to progress. On the U.S. fixed income front, the big news this week came from the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) decision to increase interest rates. This past Wednesday, the FOMC hiked rates by a quarter percentage point; while expected, the move officially signals the start of a monetary tightening cycle. It is widely forecasted that there will be six more

A January 2022 survey by Edward Jones and Morning Consult showed the top concerns from Americans at the time were inflation (83%), supply chain disruptions (77%), employment rate (71%), and interest rates (71%). Fast forward two months and those concerns certainly have not dissipated. Looking at inflation gauges, the consumer price index (CPI) increased 7.5% over the last 12 months in January, marking the largest 12-month increase since February 1982. Core-CPI (excluding food and energy) rose 6.0%, its largest 12-month increase since August 1982.  The producer price index (PPI) for final demand increased 9.7% while core-PPI rose 6.9% for the

The big news from Thursday, February 10, was the Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing the January Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased more than expected for both month-over-month and trailing 12-month periods. The CPI jumped 0.6% from December and an astounding 7.5% from last January—marking the largest annual spike in 40 years. Core-CPI (excluding food and energy prices) rose by 6.0% over the last year—the largest increase since 1982. Markets reacted sourly to the news. The NASDAQ (-2.10%), S&P 500 (-1.81%), and DJIA (-1.47%) all fell on the day, while the VIX (+19.79%) and 10-year Treasury yield (+5.29%) jumped. The

Commodity funds provide numerous benefits when implemented into investors’ portfolios. Three of the main benefits are portfolio diversification, inflation protection, and the return potential of the underlying commodity. This asset class tends to garner more attention as market uncertainty grows. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revising downward both global (-0.5 percentage points) and U.S. (-1.2 percentage points) 2022 growth projections from their October projections, it feels like a good time to touch upon commodity funds. Lipper has six classifications that make up the commodities macro-group of funds—Commodities Agriculture Funds, Commodities Base Metals Funds, Commodities Energy Funds, Commodities General Funds,

Lipper Loan Participation Funds (LP) set a new weekly intake record over the past Lipper fund-flows week. The classification pulled in an astounding $2.3 billion this last week which blew away the previous record of $1.9 billion back in August 2013. Two of the top four largest weekly inflows have occurred over the last two fund-flows weeks. What has driven such demand? The Lipper Loan Participation Funds classification consists of funds that invest primarily in participation interests in collateralized senior corporate loans that have floating or variable rates. These senior corporate loans are often below investment grade-rated and are secured

The January Effect is a theorized market anomaly where equity market prices are believed to spike more during January as compared to the rest of the year. The January Effect origin dates back to 1942 where investment banker Sidney B. Wachtel started digging into this hypothesis. As this theory evolved, it became more focused on how small-cap companies have a tendency to outperform large-cap counterparts during the month. Market participants still debate on whether the January Effect is still relevant in today’s markets. Some believe it has become such a minor event it should be disregarded altogether. Their thoughts are